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An Evening of Yesses

By the end of a nap-free day filled with running and playing at daycare, Cameron is worn out and exhausted. Our trips home have become rushed, whiney, grumbly, and heavily seasoned with the word no. No, we can’t go in that store, we’ve got to head home. No honey, there’s the bus. Basically, I want to get him home as quickly as possible, without letting him doze off or else I’m carrying him several blocks. By the time he’s in the tub poor Cameron is rather inclined to meltdowns.

Not tonight, I decided.

We left daycare as usual, and Cameron told me happily that they’d gone to the beach today. I sensed an opportunity, and asked, “Do you want to go to the beach now, with me, Cameron?”

“Caaaan we?”

My answer: “YES.”

(now, I should state here that this may have been foolish, as I am sick, and was sick enough last night for me to decide to stay home and sleep today. The good news is that the cough-all-night-for-a-week virus I’m dealing with yet again doesn’t seem to make you cough all day when you try to sleep)

Cameron skipped and jumped with excitement.

That was just the first of many yeses this evening. Add to that, instead of hauling him here and there, I played with him. We climbed, we jumped, we skipped and hopped down the sidewalk. The stairs down from the Burrard bridge are under repairs, so we had to ‘go exploring’ to find our way to the beach. Once at the beach we waded barefoot. We threw balls for a couple of dogs. We threw rocks into the water. Cameron saw the False Creek Ferry boats and asked if we could take one home, and I said, “YES!” Heading there, he jumped over my long evening shadow. I ran around him to jump over his. He chose where we sat on the boat, and happily chattered at me the whole way. He wanted to go to Science World, which was the only solid no of the evening. I did, however, show him why. It was closed. Instead, he got to play on the slide there.

In all, it was a fun, relaxed, and peaceful evening.

Felt good to be out and about with him again, even if it did mean serious bathtime meltdowns.

Wonderfully, we fell asleep in his bed together, with him draped over me, listening to my heart.